To Boost Ideas, Start With the Accounting Department

If it’s true that going public can having a chilling effect on innovation, it’s time to start asking who might be responsible for that innovation deficit. According to one new study, the blame lies with fiscally conservative financial officers and cautious chief executives.

Adopting a very conservative accounting style can have long-term effects on growth, says Gilles Hilary, associate professor of accounting & control at INSEAD. Hilary and co-authors Xin Chang and Jun Koo Kan of Nanyang Business School in Singapore and Wenrui Zhan of Xiamen University in China tracked more than 70,000 publicly traded U.S. companies from 1976 to 2006 and found that the more conservative a company was with its accounting procedures, the greater the impact it had on its ability to innovate. In the most common example of overly cautious accounting, companies “recognize bad news right away,” says Hilary, taking full writedowns on losses immediately rather than spreading the hit over a few years.

To measure innovation, the scholars looked at patent filings and citations, R&D spending, and cash flow. Businesses with the most conservative accounting approach filed about 10 percent fewer patents and had fewer patent citations. They invested less in R&D, and, the study found, the cash flows generated by the fruits of this R&D tended to have shorter horizons. “For the very conservative firms, cash flows from patents are realized 1-2 years out. For the more liberal firms, the cash flow from patents is realized 5-6 years out,” Hilary adds. “It means you have safer companies, but fewer blockbuster innovations.”

Hilary says the research even enabled them to pinpoint the innovation deficit at companies run by chief executives on the verge of retirement whose compensation was closely tied to short-term financial performance goals. For CEOs in this position, the general trend showed a reduction in R&D spending to boost the bottom line in the short term, hoping the move would be cheered by investors driving up the share price, Hilary says.

“People usually think of financial conservatism as a good thing, because it ensures management is not wasting money on certain projects, but there are drawback,s too,” Hilary says.

Startup Money, for a Piece of Your Future Paycheck

Young people who can show they’ll earn a decent living in the future should be able to access some of that wealth now. So says Upstart, a new type of lender based in Silicon Valley. It matches wealthy folks willing to front money to college students and recent grads. Generally within one year of accepting the money, recipients have to start repaying backers. The twist: Rather than return the specific amount, they agree to pay a chunk of their annual income, as reported on their tax returns, for 10 years.

Upstart, which accepts applicants from 30 states in which it has lending licenses or where no licensure is required, has big ambitions: “We’re trying to create a fundamentally new category of finance that theoretically is applicable to any person in the world,” says Jeff Keltner, who co-founded the venture with former colleagues from Google (GOOG). The website launched in August and started accepting profiles in September. (Upstart isn’t the only business pushing this model, as the Verge pointed out earlier this week.)

The money might enable participants, dubbed “upstarts” by Upstart, to enroll in coding boot camp, pay off college loans, or start businesses. “The thing that’s new is you’re investing in an individual and their personal potential,” says Keltner. With today’s crushing levels of student loan debt, “we see so many students coming out saying: ‘I can’t turn down this job, because I have this $700 a month loan payment … trying my own thing is just crazy.’”

Backed by $5.25 million from investors that include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, First Round Capital, and Mark Cuban, Upstart doesn’t intend to squeeze struggling people. Payments are waived as long as the recipient earns less than $30,000 in a year. (However, Upstart will extend the term of payments one year at a time per low year, for a maximum contract of 15 years.) Payments to backers are capped at five times their original investment.

Kathleen Day, a spokesman at consumer advocacy group Center for Responsible Lending, hasn’t studied Upstart’s service. But she says my description of it “raises red flags because it sounds like it would be very hard for the person borrowing the money to have a reasonable idea of what they’re going to have to pay” in the future. Upstart’s money, she notes, may keep recent grads from being tied to a job for a stint, but it doesn’t erase their previous debts. “There’s a whole range of people [earning more than] $30,000 for whom paying a portion of their salary for the next 10 years would be a severe financial hardship.”

To predict applicants’ future income, Upstart funnels personal information on the application—such as credit history, SAT scores, major, and schools attended—into a statistical model that compares the applicant to others. The money’s intended use is displayed on the applicant’s profile but isn’t factored into the income calculation. If an art history major from a state school pledges 1 percent of income, he or she might get roughly $5,000 from a backer, while a former Blackstone Group (BX) associate who attended Harvard Business School would get closer to $20,000, Keltner explains.

Trina Spear, who fits the latter profile, used the money she got through Upstart to join medical apparel company FIGS Scrubs as co-founder earlier this month. The risk profile is better than angel investing in a startup, says Keltner. For example, he says, if Spear’s company fails, “she’ll get a job. And she’ll probably get a pretty good paying job and [her Upstart backer] will get a portion of that income.”

The target annualized return for backers is 8 percent. That’s just a target and will only happen in the “highly unlikely” event that the upstart’s income matches Upstart’s statistical model exactly and the borrower pays the income share due, Keltner explains. If Upstart is wrong, backers will earn less—or more. Backers, he notes, “could lose their investment entirely if the upstart makes less than $30,000 for 15 years after funding, but we think this is fairly unlikely for the upstart cohort we have.” Upstarts can pledge no more than 7 percent of their future income.

While only about 10 of its 40-plus upstarts are in repayment phase, none have defaulted, according to Keltner, who says investors might find it attractive to think: “‘I can invest in here and make 8 percent and have it completely unrelated to what happens to my portfolio invested in real estate or equities.’” Upstart makes money by taking 3 percent of what an upstart raises and a 0.5 percent annual fee on funds invested.

So far, more than 100 backers have invested a total of over $500,000, which Keltner says isn’t nearly enough volume. That’s why the 10-person venture is exploring ways for investors to bet on a pool of people, rather than just one person. The goal is change the perception of the model from a “peer-to-peer novelty” to a broader “new asset class [that] you can analyze in a more traditional way,” Keltner explains.

Upstart has held no discussions of this nature with schools, he says, but “it would make total sense for every endowment fund to be willing to invest in any student who graduates from [their school]. For example, an investor could someday say, ‘I’m a Stanford guy—here’s $50,000, put it in Stanford kids’ … or any other category—say, women engineers” from different schools.

No One Remembers When Bonds Went Truly Bad

All this consternation and kvetching—“headline risk,” traders call it—over a comeuppance in the bond market. Makes you wonder if investors and Wall Street, with its battalions of freshly hatched MBAs, have enough of a frame of reference for when a bond bear last truly happened: in 1994.

Mind you, that was also when this writer was in the throes of high school senioritis, as egged on by his 56k modem. But I’m also told it was an annus horribilis for Wall Street. For three years after the Gulf War recession, the Federal Reserve had kept rates low—“low” in those days was 3 percent—to help the financial system recover from its then-epic savings and loan crisis. When the Fed tightened, Wall Street’s bond-trading operations convulsed like they hadn’t since the 1920s. Treasuries fell a mere 3.3 percent in 1994. But U.S. bond expectations are built into everything but the water supply—which is a recipe for disaster when the Greenspan Fed, sensing inflationary threats, had to almost double its target funds rate to 5.50. All manner of fixed income sold off first, asking questions later.

Of course the world should learn from that bond bear, the likes of which took down hedge funds and brokerages. But has it maybe forgotten, now that every rise in interest rates over the past several years has been a head fake, keeping the bond bull running?

April Rudin is an adviser to wealth managers and other financial-services outfits. Most brokerages, she says, “have no communications plan” for when the bear strikes. “Instead,” she says, “when there is good news they reach out to clients, and when there is bad news they hide under their desks. Some younger investors or others may not be aware when they should be preparing their clients ahead of time, and not just when in crisis mode.”

Bloomberg’s Dave Wilson worked his terminal magic to hook me up with a July 1994 story about a rare breed of activist fixed-income investor known as a “bond vigilante”: he who ratchets up government bond yields to punish politicians and heads of state for their fiscally dangerous spendthriftiness. “Anytime a government or a central bank does something that the markets perceive as potentially inflationary,” remarked then-Dallas Fed President Robert McTeer in the piece, “then you see it immediately in long-term bond prices.” Those macro-marauders helped push up U.S. 10-year Treasury yields to 7.28 percent from 5.79 percent; Germany’s bonds to 7.04 percent from 5.53 percent; and poor old Canada’s to 9.16 percent from 6.63 percent. (Bond prices move inversely to yield; the more rates shoot up, the more yesterday’s and today’s buyers lament committing to their lower-yielding issues).

One Seinfeld, Friends, and Sopranos later, legions of new brokerage “producers” are being recruited from business schools and colleges. None were financially aware in the age of the vigilantes and, before that, the bond-mauling interest rate environment of the late 1970s and early ’80s.

Today, according to the Leuthold Group, if corresponding interest rates were to shoot up a mere point from where they are now over 12 months, a T-bond maturing in February 2031 would sustain a total hit of between 6 percent and 11 percent (your yield gets subsumed by the bond’s plunging price).

So what about the clients of those greenhorn brokers? To what extent are investors soaking in these loss hazards at a time when the taxable-bond funds have taken in $310 billion in just two years?

In a thoughtful Morningstar survey, “Why Are Investors Buying Bonds?” small investors betray a good deal of naiveté. “Many,” wrote Morningstar’s (MORN) Christine Benz, “noted that hurtling toward retirement—combined with the memory of clawing their way back from losses during recent bear markets—had prompted a greater bond allocation in their portfolios.”

“We can’t afford to take a 2008-like hit at this point,” responded one small investor.

“The yields aren’t amazing—anywhere from 2% to 6% depending on the maturity date—but I sleep at night,” said another.

“I don’t care at all about forecasts that future bond returns will be low; bond returns are normally low, compared to stocks,” said another. “I own them to preserve capital in downturns, not for their returns. I don’t especially care that their interest rates are low, although this does influence my choice of bond types. I have never fallen for the fallacy that interest has any relationship to income.”

The stock market’s many crashes since the dot-bomb have transpired in an age of information overflow. “Twitter, blogs, and the like,” says Rudin, “have shown they can move markets. That is a seismic difference between 1994 and now: the speed and amount of information.” Yet somehow that echo chamber has yet to process a potential crash in bonds.

What Google Searches About the Future Tell Us About the Present

Google (GOOG) search data have become a statistical gold mine for academics, scientists, and number crunchers, who have used it for everything from predicting flu outbreaks to determining to what extent racial prejudice robbed Barack Obama of otherwise certain votes. Research published today demonstrates how searches about the future have a strong link to economic success.

Two academics in the U.K., Warwick Business School associate professor Tobias Preis and Dr. Helen Susannah Moat of University College London, analyzed more than 45 billion public Google searches performed during 2012 and calculated the ratio between searches that included “2013” and those that included “2011.”

They found that countries where “Internet users … search for more information about the future tend to have a higher per-capita GDP,” says Preis, who created a stir in 2010 when he used a similar data-crunching approach to quantify and model stock price fluctuations of companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. “The more a country is looking forward, the more successful economically the country is.”

This makes sense. When the economy is humming along, it is easier to be optimistic—to plan vacations, buy season tickets, investigate investments, etc.

Of everyone, Germans are the most forward-looking, knocking Britons from the top spot. Preis explained that the U.K. scored so highly a year earlier because of the high anticipation around the Olympics. This year, the Germans are looking forward to a pivotal federal election. Pries, a German national, declined to say whether Germany’s exuberance bodes well for incumbent Angela Merkel.

Interestingly, the U.S. ranks 11th, up from 15th a year earlier. The 2012 findings showed that entering an election year, more Americans were looking backward to 2010. This year, Americans as a whole are more optimistic about 2013 than they were a year earlier, Preis says.

Economic laggards Pakistan, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan round out the bottom of the list.

At HMV, the Music Stops But the Brand Plays On

The financial collapse earlier this month of retailer HMV Group could mean the shuttering of 230 shops and the elimination of thousands of jobs across the U.K. The demise of Britain’s biggest seller of music and movies also has left loyal little Nipper the dog, its trademark, searching for a home. The century-old image of cock-eared Nipper listening to a gramophone dubbed His Master’s Voice—the source of HMV’s name—could be sold along with other trademarks to an investment company such as Hilco Trading or another of the scores of businesses that have looked at the company’s assets so far.

There’s a thriving trade in downtrodden but well-known brands such as HMV and Polaroid. Liquidation specialists are attracted by the value of an established name and its related trademarks. They can breathe new life into so-called phoenix brands by repositioning a brick-and-mortar retailer as an online merchant or licensing the name to others for new products, according to Gary Assim, an intellectual property lawyer at U.K. law firm Shoosmiths. “Roughly speaking, 70 percent of the value of a company is goodwill, or the value in the brand. It has nothing to do with its physical assets,” Assim explains. “A business with a high goodwill value, like HMV, is more likely to be a phoenix brand.”

HMV has 53 trademarks registered with Britain’s Intellectual Property Office. These include His Master’s Voice, HMV Headphone Hut, and HMV Get Closer, a short-lived social networking site the company shuttered in 2009. HMV has registered Nipper’s image as a trademark for businesses ranging from clothing to toys to coffee shops. The company also owns trademarks in the U.S. and across Europe. “Any brand with substantial brand recognition will survive in one form or another,” says Maninder Gill, head of the intellectual property and retail groups at London law firm Simons Muirhead & Burton. “HMV, with its heritage across generations, has some value. But the question is, how much?”

In 2011, HMV estimated the worth of its intangible assets, including Nipper and the company name, at £48.7 million ($78 million). It’s far from certain, though, that the company could get that much if the name and logo were auctioned, Gill cautions. The brand, trademarks, and e-commerce business of U.S. electronics chain Circuit City—once a thriving retailer, with $12.6 billion in sales in 2000—sold for only $14 million in 2009. Complicating matters, ownership of the trademark for His Master’s Voice has been divided around the world, potentially reducing its value for anyone bidding on HMV’s remains.

The name His Master’s Voice was coined in 1899 by English artist Francis Barraud for a painting of his brother’s fox terrier, Nipper. The Gramophone Co. of Britain purchased the image for £100 and used it as a banner for its stores, eventually shortening the name to HMV. Gramophone ultimately became part of record label EMI Group, which spun off the HMV shops in 1998.

In the U.S., phonograph maker Victor Talking Machine also used Nipper as a trademark. It then passed to Radio Corporation of America, which bought Victor in 1929. Over the years, the little dog’s visage helped sell American products including LPs and stereo equipment. Today the Nipper image for use on radios belongs to RCA Trademark Management, part of French entertainment company Technicolor (TCH). In Japan, JVC Kenwood, a former subsidiary of RCA Victor, owns the rights to Nipper.

HMV and similarly troubled companies “are still great brands—they just lost their relevance,” says Graham Hales, chief executive officer of the London office of consultant Interbrand, which measures the value of brands based on their past financial results, power to sway consumer buying decisions, and ability to generate future demand. He declined to estimate a value for Nipper.

One way for aging marques to regain relevance is to move online. U.S. home goods retailer Linens ’n Things, which once operated 571 stores, has been selling its wares at lnt.com since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009. Other brands live on by licensing their name to sell items related to their core product. Polaroid, which gained a mass following in the 1970s with cameras that printed photos instantly, came out of bankruptcy in 2009 as a marketing and intellectual-property holding company. PLR IP Holdings bought Polaroid’s assets and now offers the name to makers of cameras, digital frames, and accessories.

Ben Voyer, a marketing professor at ESCP Europe business school, says HMV could thrive in its next incarnation if its new owner focuses on a niche where it has credibility and can attract consumers, such as music festivals or concert halls. “Consumers would be happy to see the brand saved and survive in one form or another,” Voyer says. But extending the brand too far from its origins carries risks. An HMV online music and memorabilia store could work. Nipper bedsheets? That dog, as they say, probably won’t hunt.

The bottom line: The trademark for Nipper the dog, failed retailer HMV’s century-old mascot, is on the block as part of the record chain’s restructuring.

An MBA Change Careers

These days, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who stays with one company or even on one job track throughout his or her entire professional life. By some estimates, two-thirds or more of graduating MBA use the degree as a means of switching careers. If you're looking for the fast track to gain the skills and network to launch your career in a new direction, a popular way to do so is through an MBA program.So-called "career switchers" look upon the degree as a way to expand international job opportunities, develop the right connections for future employment, and establish the potential for long-term income and financial stability. In fact, there's even an M.B.A. for Career Change offered by Willamette University's Atkinson Graduate School of Management.Since application season is ramping up, here is some advice for those applying to business school now or in the near future. If your undergraduate degree or work experience falls into the nontraditional category, make sure you clearly convey your long-term career goals within your application and essays, and explain in detail how you arrived at the conclusion that an MBA would help you further your professional aspirations.Business school demands a huge investment of your time, energy, and finances, so make an airtight case to the admissions committee for why you want to go into this new field. Show that you know what the industry requires, the challenges you expect to face, and convey all previous experiences that demonstrate you have the transferable skills to make this switch.Speaking with MBA Podcaster, Regina Resnick, assistant dean and managing director of the Office of MBA Career Services at Columbia Business School, says demonstrating transferable skills depends on whether you're changing industry or function or both."Your work experience should reflect everything that you've done and be complete and accurate, but you may want to put more emphasis on those things that relate most closely to your new job opportunity," she explains. This may mean taking additional classes to bulk up your quantitative skills, or highlighting extracurricular activities that cement the reason for your career shift.Once you're in business school, you have the opportunity to see how you fit in that new industry through coursework, student groups, internships, or networking with alumni. Self reflection and exploration are key components of the M.B.A. experience, giving students a chance to sample various fields and functions without making any firm commitments.Embarking on a new career path with a freshly minted MBA tucked under your arm isn't just about new knowledge acquired in the classroom. It's about leveraging your existing experience with enhanced skills, and even more so, it's about making the most of personal relationships.All of the people, classes, activities, etc. in an MBA program catapult you into a whole new sphere, and you may come out with completely new ideas that help facilitate career change in ways you would not have thought of before. For many, this is the best part and the real opportunity business school provides.

Top Ranked Business Schools in Singapore

The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School and Nanyang Business School (NBS) are the top ranked business schools in Singapore.NUS Business School is recognized as one of the leading centres of business education in the Asia-Pacific region. It offers one of the top ranked Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs in the world. The School has been accredited by the prestigious AACSB International and EQUIS, joining the ranks of world-class business schools such as London Business School and Judge Business School.NUS Business School has achieved outstanding rankings for its Executive MBA programs, listed among the world's top 30 in the Financial Times global ranking of the Top 85 Executive MBA programs. The School did extremely well in two of the sub-categories: it was placed in the Top 5 for the categories of 'International Attendees' and 'Top Salaries in IT/ Telecommunications'. In 2008 the NUS MBA program was ranked 9th in Asia and 89th globally by the Economist Intelligence Unit 'Which MBA?' Rankings. It was one of the only two b-schools in Asia to have moved up in league table.NUS MBA program can be studied via full-time or part-time. The full-time program typically takes 17 months to complete while the part-time program can be completed between 24 and 72 months. Students can opt for a general MBA degree or pursue a specialisation in Finance, Marketing, Strategy and Organisation, Real Estate, or Healthcare Management.NBS at Nanyang Technological University is one of the only b-schools in Singapore and the third in Asia to achieve both the AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System) accreditations. The Bachelor of Accountancy is also recognized as a professional accounting qualification in the nation by the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore and the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. It is also accredited by the professional accountancy bodies in the UK and Australia such as the ACCA, CIMA, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, CPA Australia, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.NBS offers one of the world best MBA programs. According to the Financial Times survey 2007, its MBA program is ranked top in Singapore and No. 2 in Asia. In a separate annual ranking by The Economist, NBS MBA is ranked 69th on the list of world's top 100 MBA programs. The School achieved strong ratings for education experience and opening of new career opportunities.           

Specify Your MBA Application In Business School

Specify a Learning Agenda in Your MBA Application

So, you want to go to business school. What exactly do you want to learn?" It sounds like a simple question, but MBA applicants often struggle with it. College interviewers might have asked about your intended major, but you could craft broad answers; in business school everyone is a business major, so the messaging needs to be more defined.Generic responses, such as, "I like the diverse student body" and "I want to get a general management education," leave interviewers with the impression that you're not seriously interested in their business school, Soojin Kwon, the director of admissions at the Ross business school at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, recently blogged.Offering interviewers the opposite impression-that you are a serious candidate-comes down to clearly articulating your learning agenda in both your essays and interviews. It's insufficient to say that you want to learn more about accounting, finance, or marketing. Every MBA student learns about those; they're called required courses.To demonstrate how serious you are about your future studies, be specific about why business school is the logical next step in your career progression, rather than painting with a broad brush. business school staff spend literally thousands of hours developing course materials on virtually every business-related subject under the sun, so you must reflect on your ambition beyond viewing an MBA merely as a rite of passage
If you have a particular strength in your candidacy, you may choose to develop that element further. You may have worked in marketing for the last four years, for example, but you want to further your knowledge of brand building among young people and unconventional sales channel development to help you launch a certain entrepreneurial idea you have.Or, you may have identified gaps in your professional skillset, such as navigating business law or analyzing industrial operations, despite your experience as an investment banker and deep understanding of valuation and debt finance.Consider the kinds of online articles you are attracted to, and draw upon those topics as you develop sections of your essays and answers to your interview questions. Addressing topics that you're passionate about will make your answers more compelling and better researched.You may want to introduce your interests in an essay like this: "I'm fascinated by the ways brands like Apple have been rolled out in new cultures." Coming up with a short list of subjects that fascinate you can also help you research course offerings, initiatives, and clubs at prospective schools.As you think about your learning agenda, be as concrete as possible. When you're considering subject areas, don't just think marketing; instead, think brand management, channel creation, or pricing.Technology, healthcare, and consumer product industries aren't enough; get more specific with market segments, such as security technologies, new healthcare service models, and branded luxury products. These are still mega-billion dollar industries with plenty of opportunities for innovation.It's also important to stretch beyond your comfort zone. If you're well-versed in organizational behavior as applied to U.S. companies, maybe you want to learn about the differences in India, the Middle East, or Latin America. Or you may want to learn about investing in China or Canada. You will have plenty of classmates and case materials to help you learn about these different economies.The more you're able to clearly articulate what you plan to do, and how an MBA will help you reach those goals, the better your chances of gaining admission at your target business school.

Outside Activities Count in Your MBA Application

Many MBA applicants fear they don't have enough or the right type of extracurricular activities and community service to impress b-school admissions committees. Business schools do not assess candidates' extracurricular activities based on a numerical scale-three or more acts of demonstrated public selflessness certainly do not guarantee admission-but they're still an important part of the application process.Extracurriculars are worth incorporating into your application for several reasons. First, they show admissions officials that you are multi-dimensional. They demonstrate your interests, passions, and personality, which helps the committees get to know you beyond your professional goals. Extracurriculars also indicate how you might contribute to the diversity and vitality of a class and alumni network.Having interests outside of work shows that you can balance multiple commitments, and that you are the type of person who is capable of juggling academics with clubs, conferences, recruiting, and more.Community involvement also shows that you have a larger view of the world, that you see what's happening outside of your office, and that you're interested in contributing in some way. Your extracurriculars can show admissions officials that you understand your own role as a leader and your ability to leverage your position and give back. It's an opportunity to demonstrate qualities such as creativity, leadership, teamwork, communication skills, and initiative. These qualities are important outside of a professional setting, as well as at work.Unfortunately, if you have spent the past five years buried in your office, suddenly joining an organization or volunteering at a soup kitchen one Sunday is not going to help you much. That kind of effort is pretty transparent, and besides, business school officials realize that many applicants are extremely busy with demanding jobs that make it impossible to commit several hours a week to a worthy cause. Still, the most successful applicants find ways to carve out time for interests and contributions.When thinking about ways to become involved, don't get hung up on traditional volunteer work. There are many ways to show your diversity, and a good place to start is with your interests and passions. Think hard about what excites you and how you can leverage those interests for a greater good. Here are some examples from some of my past clients:Client 1 enjoyed painting as a hobby until she accepted an investment banking job out of college. She felt she had no time to become involved outside of work. But when she became involved in a company-sponsored fundraising initiative, she rekindled her art interest and designed T-shirts to raise extra money and unite the team.As a result, Client 1 showcased her artistic talent and interest, became involved in a great cause, and demonstrated creativity and leadership.Another former client was on the swim team throughout high school and college. She decided to coach a middle school swim team, where she developed meaningful relationships with the kids that she mentored and ended up learning a great deal from them as well.Client 2 showcased athletic interests and found a personally meaningful way to give back to her community. In doing so, she highlighted important coaching and motivational skills.A third former client struggled with learning English in Israel. He started an English public speaking club and grew it over the course of four years.As a result, Client 3 highlighted a creative approach to solving a personal problem, which also helped others and demonstrated leadership and an ability to get things done.Keep in mind that quality is far more important than quantity. Rattling off a list of 10 involvements will not help your admissions chances as much as something that truly reflects who you are and can showcase important interests and skills.You may be surprised to find that these involvements will add a great deal to your life, which is exactly the point.

Business school rise your income

Looking For an Income Rise Join a Business School

If you are an individual who is stuck in a job where you don't seem to quite enjoy any benefits and are longing for a rise in your income, you should re consider your decision about joining a business school. Business schools today offer a proper focused curriculum which helps you become more advanced with your business techniques and helps you understand the management practices better. All this converts you into a sheer professional ready to enter the world business market and earn more money the right way.Business schools have vocational, technical and management courses which provide the basic education to the students regarding the skills of the subject they want to learn and gain an expertise in. Finance management, human resources, computer information etc. are some of the subjects most of the students choose to gain knowledge about. There are certificates which the students receive on the completion of their course from the business school which has a lot of value when the person goes for job interviews further. Many universities also offer the Bachelor of Science degrees in business. This course has a curriculum which gives the candidate in-depth knowledge about many subjects like global business procedures, industry administration, e- business, crisis management etc. This course is a full-time course for about three years and its value in the industry is also increasing with each passing day because due to the internet the global market is becoming more active.Master of Business Administration (MBA) or a post-graduate degree today is what the candidate prefers to go in for. There are combination degrees today where the students can choose more than one subject to specialize in. This is more in demand in today's active complex business world. Nowadays, employers not only hope but demand that their employees be educated with a good post-graduate or MBA degree from a reputed business school.The degrees from reputed business schools provide the students with skills and knowledge which help them earn a respectable income. The practical experience which these degrees offer to the students is also well-known and this increases the value of the individual in the business world even more. The salaries before an MBA or post-graduate degree and after one vary tremendously. Another good thing about these studies is that they do not have any age limit for the candidates opting for the post-graduate degrees from the business schools. Whenever, the individual feels it is imperative for him to pursue his management studies, he can.

Business school essays

How to Strike the Right Tone in Your Business School Essays

Finding the right balance between confidence and humility is one of the critical challenges you will face in crafting your business school essays and in delivering answers to admissions interviewers.No one likes a blowhard, but at the same time, no one else is going to "toot your horn" in your MBA application either. It's all about your attitude, which will permeate your essays and set the tone for the way the admissions committee views you.One of the key questions applicants often have is how confident they should try to appear. When you tell a story lauding your achievements to the admissions official across the table, that person's visual cues can help you know when to scale back the confidence by one or two levels.With business school essays, you have one shot to craft your message, and admissions committee members with diverse personality types and differing levels of acceptance and patience for bravado will read your prose.Likewise, some applicants face the dilemma of how much of an "expert" to paint themselves as in their field. It is critical to portray yourself as someone from whom your classmates can learn.Many business schools are case study-oriented; the quality of the education is essentially determined by the content the students contribute in the classroom. Additionally, offline conversations are a huge part of the learning process for both academic subjects as well as issues related to career choices.However, the "I've seen it all" attitude is definitely not something business schools are looking for from their typical 25-to-30-year-old applicant. Even as you highlight the fascinating experiences you've had and the cutting-edge knowledge you possess, make sure you take careful stock of what you want to learn, both from your professors and your fellow students.The people who take the best advantage of business schools are those who come in with a high level of curiosity and a willingness to absorb new information like a sponge. In short, the appropriate balance is struck when you have a developed a detailed awareness of what you have to teach and what you have to learn.So, how can you highlight your business and leadership achievements without sounding like you think you are God's gift to commerce? Here are three pointers:1. Acknowledge the team: NASCAR drivers use the "we" technique to a fault. "We were running great today. When we took that first turn, our car was running perfectly."You don't want to sound like a clich? but positioning your achievements as team achievements works wonders. Plus, your abilities as a business leader will ultimately be more dependent on your abilities to achieve in a team format than in an individual setting.2. Balance your portfolio of essays: You will probably have more license to emphasize your impressive achievements in some of your essays if you gain credibility in others by being honest and open about failures, weaknesses, and doubts.If you just highlight how the incredible amount of work you pitched into an entrepreneurial venture led to its success, you shouldn't half-heartedly chime in with "sometimes I work too hard" as a personal or professional weakness in another essay.3. Highlight mentors: If you are shining the spotlight on your leadership capabilities, make sure you also acknowledge people in your academic, extracurricular, or work settings from whom you learned some of these skills. This works equally well for hard skills-such as finance and negotiation-and for "soft" skills, such as leadership, communication, and mentoring abilities. Doing so shows you are good at recognizing the strengths in others and know how to learn from them.It's also important that folks who come from positions and industries lacking that "glamour" factor don't downplay their accomplishments. Certain high-profile investment banks and consulting firms are definitely the main feeder companies to American business schools, but it is often the people who come from less well-represented areas that have the most to teach the section or study group.You may have run a T-shirt shack. Or conducted accounting audits for sketchy firms. Or monitored quality control at a Senegalese ball bearing plant. Rest assured, you do have valuable things to teach your classmates. The trick comes in thinking through what those lessons are and showing you have an unusual perspective on them.           

Highest Salary Rise for Top Business School MBA

The quality and student experience of London Business School MBA programme has again been recognised, in the Financial Times' annual global ranking. The School's programme ranked fourth in the Global MBA Rankings 2012, in the top five with Stanford (1), Harvard (2), Wharton (3) and Columbia (5). The rankings are calculated from data going back three years.The ranking is based on a number of criteria, comprising 20 metrics with a primary focus on career success. This includes the current salary of the business school MBA class of 2008, three years after they graduated; value for money and recommendations from alumni. London Business School MBA scored particularly highly in aims achieved, ranking second overall, and in alumni recommendations fourth overall. The School's global outlook was reflected by its third placing for international mobility, acknowledging the large proportion of students who have worked outside the UK before, during or after their MBA. International experience, comprising internships, student treks and exchanges also ranked highly (eighth overall), with post-MBA career progress ranking tenth.Since the Class of 2008, the School has implemented a significant amount of change, through an MBA review, to further enhance the London connection and the student experience of the programme. The class of 2008 enjoyed the highest percentage salary rise of any of the major schools at 134%, which compares the difference between salaries before and after the MBA. In a particularly challenging economic period, the earning power of the MBA proved its value, with the class commanding a $7,205 weighted salary increase over their predecessors. London Business School has seen further proof of its MBA's enduring success, with 93 percent of its most recent MBA class gaining employment within three months of graduating, in spite of challenging times in the job market.The School offers four part time Executive MBA degrees, which are completed in between 16 and 20 months. Class size has been around 400 students in every annual cohort, with a total of 800 students on the 15-21 month MBA. These are broken into five streams of around 80 students which undertake all core courses together. The school is proud of the diversity of the student body and the 2008 intake - graduating in 2010 - consisted of 320 students from 60 nations with 25 per cent female and only 9 per cent from the UK (20 per cent from North America). London Business School's diverse graduates come from 130 different countries and from a wide range of professional backgrounds. After the completion of the MBA programme, graduates accept top positions with major recruiters across Industry, Finance and Consulting sectors all around the world.

Applying to Business School for an MBA

5 Tips for Applying to Business School

Round one deadlines are coming up at several MBA programs. If you're one of thousands scrambling to put the finishing details on your application, congratulations! You're almost over a critical hurdle and can soon rightly take at least four or five hours to relax and revel in your accomplishment.Meanwhile, here are some last-minute tips to help you check off your To Do List or jump-start the next phase of the process: interview prep.1. Submit clear, evocative essays that adhere to the stated word limits. Admissions committees want to see focused essays, and holding to the word limit guidance demonstrates you can follow directions. After months of writing drafts, seeking feedback from friends and family, and changing everything about your essays, don't just "accept all changes" and upload your essay documents. Make sure you have cut and paste your essays into an entirely new document that was not used for drafting.2. Forget all about trying to be the traditional or "ideal" business school applicant. Avoid all attempts to tell the admissions committee what you think they want to hear. Simply by allowing your individual personality to shine through, you'll be able to differentiate yourself from the rest of the applicant pool.3. "Don't underestimate the importance of your resume," counsels UM Ross business school MBA admissions director Soojin Kwon. She urges applicants to submit resumes that are clear, concise, and scrubbed of all industry jargon. She likens the resume to a "movie trailer" for your life, so make sure you're putting the most compelling, demonstrative details forward.4. Applying in Round One, if you're ready with your best application, may actually be a safer bet than waiting until Round Two. Sara Neher, assistant dean of MBA admissions at UV Darden, recommends applying in the first round because "Every seat in the class and every scholarship dollar is available in Round 1." In recent years, says Neher, Round 2 has become bigger and more competitive.5. If you're invited to interview at the business school of your dreams, prep and practice will help ease any interview performance concerns you may have. Start by reviewing your applications. It's been a few weeks since you submitted, and you will want to return to the MBA applicant mindset by reviewing your overall application strategy.The second step in your interview process is to review some typical questions, which is fairly easy to do since many candidates post their experiences online. Write out some bullet points to outline what you would say in response to your practice questions. Finally, practice, practice, practice! Enlist the help of family and friends, and ask them to provide constructive feedback.The most important bit of advice we can offer is to have fun and try not to get too stressed out by the process. While MBA applications are exhausting, time-consuming, and a heck of a lot of work, in the end, it will all be worth it.           

Before Applying for an MBA in business school

5 Points to Consider Before Applying for an MBA

All aspiring MBAs must decide how many and which business school to apply to; the key is to be aware of where you are in the application "window"-or where you are in life in general.The vast majority of MBA students are in their mid-20s to early 30s. Only a small portion comes directly from college, and only a few attend full-time business school in their late-30s or 40s. But even within the prime eight-year window-from 24 to 32-applicants should consider five issues when deciding where to apply.1. Age: Many applicants in their mid-20s decide to apply only to their first two choices, figuring that if they don't get in, they can reapply down the line when they have more experience. While this approach may work for some younger candidates, it's not recommended for applicants who are a bit older. Instead, older candidates should apply to a wider array of schools to ensure that they will at least have the option of attending business school next fall.Of course, the best scenario involves an intelligent mix of "reach" and "safety" schools that will yield a choice of MBA programs for the applicant. Unfortunately, some candidates get on a misguided "Harvard or Stanford... or nothing!" kick that doesn't serve anyone's interests.2. Career path: Some MBA aspirants hold positions where they can continue for many years, but others work in areas, such as consulting or investment banking, where policy or tradition encourages young employees to get further education.In environments where one can continue to advance unfettered, a candidate might consider applying solely to his or her top choice programs. However, candidates coming from companies with two- to three-year analyst programs, which don't allow for much upward progression, should probably cast their nets wider and assemble a bigger portfolio of schools.3. Career track satisfaction: Several MBA applicants, who feel locked in roles that are too technical or too narrowly defined, have told me they want to apply to just a couple of very highly ranked programs.However, when people hope to transition to either an entirely new role or industry sooner rather than later, they should apply to a broad range of business school. There are incredible programs throughout the top 20 in the b-school rankings (and even beyond) that can provide the classes, career programs, and alumni networks that aid this kind of transition.4. First timer or reapplicant: A candidate who is going through his or her second round of business school applications should almost always apply to more schools. If the candidate is applying a couple of years down the line after dramatically improving her experience base, then she might add two or three new schools to the mix, but should still target her top programs from a few years before.However, if the candidate is applying the very next year without significant changes in role, experience, or extracurriculars, he should pursue a different base of schools, with perhaps one or two holdovers from the previous year.5. Family considerations: Taking two years to get an MBA is not just a business decision--it's also a life decision. Sometimes, the interests of boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, or children are critical factors in making the decision of if, when, and where to apply. These considerations are much more complex and varied than the factors listed above, so it's difficult to work through them in-depth here.For instance, some students want to get through business school quickly so they can start a family afterward, while others may view business school (with day care, low travel requirements, etc.) as a great environment to begin to build up their brood.Candidates should talk with family, friends, and mentors (and potentially an MBA application adviser) early in the process to determine where they are in this window for business school.  

IE Business School - MBA Business School

About IE Business School

IE Business School was founded in Spain in 1973, is recognized as the world's leading school business. IE Business School (Instituto de Empresa) is located in the Spanish capital of Madrid. IE Business School students enjoyed learning and the use of Spanish, the second largest commercial entertainment in this world. IE Business School has more than 400 professors and teachers from 25 countries, students from 81 countries around the world, international is another great feature of IE Business School. 37,000 graduates of IE Business School in more than 100 countries around the world are sitting in positions of leadership.
IE Business School has formed various master courses:
International MBA Program (singing): This course is a 13 enrollment in April and November every year twice. first four semester all courses taught in English. Semester elective (5.6 two semesters), students can choose to study English or Spanish classes taught classes.
IE Business School also offers a series of senior management training and a global perspective, for example, the Chicago School of Business, international senior management training course for senior managers. In addition, it also opened a PhD and DBA Doctor of Business Administration courses.

IE Business School website : www.ie.edu/business-school